Rise of Darkness
by Mainwolf
Summary: Sora defeated Xehanort and restored peace to the worlds. The darkness was locked back up from where it came. But thirty years later, someone is trying to release the darkness on earth again, and now, it's up to a new keyblade wielder to stop it.
1. Chapter 1

Welcome everyone, to my very first fanfic. I love kingdom hearts, and had some ideas flying around my head, so I thought I'd write them out and see where it leads. I hope you all enjoy the story, and I would accept any sort of constructive criticism you have to offer. I will say, I'm not the best at describing things, so I will have a link to what the keyblades look like at the bottom of the chapter.

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Dive to Heart

Black, that's all I could see. No matter where I looked, or what direction I turned in, everything was pitch black. And then, suddenly… Suddenly I was falling. I have no idea how to describe it, but all I knew was that I was falling into a pit of nothingness. I was spiraling out of, picking up speed as I fell for what seemed like an eternity, until I started to slow down, and as my body righted itself, my feet planted on solid ground. The instant my feet touched down, the darkness started swirling around my feet before being blown away like leaves in the wind, revealing what looked like a giant circular stained-glass window underneath me, and I had to shield my eyes for a second as I adjusted the sudden light. When I was able to see clearly, I looked down at the floor and looked at the stained glass. It was a huge picture of a person, sleeping and holding what looked like two giant keys, one laying in his hand beside him, and the other across his lap in his right hand. He was wearing a pair of Black DC shoes with white soles and khaki shorts. As I moved up, he was wearing a plain black shirt, and he was wearing a black snapback with a deep blue bill backwards on his head, but it wasn't until I looked at his face that I realized who it was.

"Wait… That's me." I gasped out with confusion etched all over my face

I was looking at a picture of myself, my dark auburn hair showing around the edges of my hat, and freckles occasionally spotting my skin. I wasn't pale, but I wasn't very tan either. And then I looked beside the picture of myself and saw three smaller circles beside my head. Inside two of the circles were the faces of people I knew very well. One of the pictures was of my best friend Kyler, whose family adopted me after my parents passed away when I was very young. We might as well be brothers considering how often we think of the exact same thing at the same time… way too frequently… Besides the fact that he is Filipino and I'm white. His skin is a very dark tan, with short black hair, and brown eyes.

In the circle beside him was another one of my best friends, Jonathan. His skin very light with his bleach blonde hair reaching the back of his neck, also being covered by a hat.

Above their pictures in the third circle though, I don't know who that person was. It was a girl with chestnut brown hair down to her shoulders. She was wearing a pair of black framed glasses. She had deep blue eyes and fair skin.

Before I had any time to look closer at the mystery person, I suddenly heard a voice.

"So much to do, so little time... The door that was shut is being re-opened. Now, step forward."

Confused as to what was happening, I stepped forward, looking for where the voice came from. As I stepped forward, three pedestals rose from the ground around me, and each of them had an object floating above them. Above one was a sword, another, a shield, and the last one was a staff.

"Power sleeps within you... If you give it form... It will give you strength. Choose well."

Examining them all, I decided that a sword was the most fitting for me, so I walked over to it, and took it from its place floating above the pedestal.

"The power of the warrior. Invincible courage. A sword of terrible destruction. Is this the power you seek?"

I nod and say aloud, "Yes." Suddenly, the sword disappeared from my hands.

"Then your path is set. Now, what will you give up in exchange?"

Without a second thought, I walk over to the staff and pick it up.

"The power of the mystic. Inner strength. A staff of wonder and ruin. You give up this power?"

Again, I reply with an audible yes.

The pedestals disappeared back into the ground, and in my hands appeared the two giant keys from the picture, and it felt like I suddenly knew what they were called, like it was planted into my brain, Keyblade. In my right was a black Keyblade with red accents all along it, it looked kind of like flames in design at the hand guard, and as it went down the blade, it was in a sort of crisscross pattern, until it got to the teeth of the blade, which were three black spikes.

"Blazing fury"

The other Keyblade looked more like a normal sword. It was a combination of white, and a cool blue color all over. The guard was thin, and this one felt a little easier to move in my hand. The blade was long and thin. Right above the guard there were small spikes coming out of the edge of one side of the blade, before becoming straight again, and repeating at the end of the blade.

"Swift Judgement"

As I examine the two keyblades, I realize that they feel like they were made for me. Not too heavy, but not too light, and they fit perfectly in my hands. I tried swinging them around some, and they felt perfect. Not clumsy or hard to maneuver as some blades tend to be. I had had some practice with swords before, so I at least had a slight idea of what I was doing. Suddenly, the voice was back again.

"You gained the power to fight. There will be times you have to fight. Keep your light burning strong."

I look around and saw a few shadows on the floor with bright yellow eyes, and they came out of the ground. I looked around nervously for a second before forcing myself to calm down, talking aloud to myself as I often do.

"It's okay Garrett, there's only five of them, and they're puny… You got this."

Suddenly, I sprang into action. I leapt forward, and sliced one of the shadows right down the middle with one of my keyblades, before spinning and slashing at another.

"Two down" I stabbed my keyblade through the chest of the third shadow, and ripped it up through its shoulder, only to swing it back down on the next shadow running right at me.

"That's four." Eyeing the last shadow, I charged at it, and sliced it in half with both keyblades.

"And that's five."

As I looked around, everything started fading out as I heard the voice one final time.

"Your journey ahead is a long one, but you won't be alone. Don't forget about those around you. Be strong, and if you ever lose your light, use theirs."

And then I faded into consciousness as I heard my alarm go off, letting out a groan, I got up to turn it off and get ready for school. "Such a strange dream… But it felt so real…"

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As I said above, I will link a picture of the two keyblades. I hope you guys enjoyed my first chapter, and hopefully I upload pretty frequently. Again, please review, because I would like to hear what you guys have to say, and any ideas that you might have.

Sincerely, Mainwolf

/a/qp7Qg


	2. Chapter 2

Hey everyone, Mainwolf here with another chapter of Rise of Darkness. I hope you all enjoy my story, and if you have any constructive criticism, please leave a review! Along with that, I'm having a little trouble coming up with last names for my characters, so if you have any ideas, drop em in a review and I'll think about them. Without further ado, I give you chapter two.

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Junior Year

"Such a strange dream… But it felt so real…" I think I had said that about three times now as I stood there, the dream playing over again in my head. I don't know how long I zoned out for, but the next thing I knew, Kyler was waving his hand in my face.

"Hello, earth to Garrett! Do you want to be late on the first day of school?" I jumped slightly, startled by his sudden appearance… Well, sudden to me. He had been standing there for about ten minutes now.

"Huh? Oh, uh… Sorry." I stammered. "I was thinking about something and I guess I zoned out."

"Well, if you want to get a shower before we leave, you better hurry up." I glanced at my alarm clock and saw the time.

"It's already 7:15? I've been standing here for 45 minutes? Holy shit…" I rushed over to my dresser and pulled out my clothes. A dark pair of jeans with a plain black t-shirt, and a pair of boxers. "Sorry Kyler, I'll be quick." I got in the shower, and cleaned myself as quick as I could, while still making sure to clean myself well. Once I was done, I got out of the shower, got dressed and brushed my teeth, before going back to my room to put my shoes on and grab my backpack. On my way out of the room, I made sure to grab my wallet and phone, glancing at the latter as I walked out.

"7:35, right on time" I headed downstairs, meeting Kyler in the kitchen, and grabbing a pear. "Ready to go?" I asked him.

Putting his phone in his pocket before standing up and slinging his backpack over his shoulder, "I've been ready for like 15 minutes dude"

We headed to the door, Kyler making sure to grab the car keys before we got outside. As I locked the door behind us, he glanced back at me and asked, "What were you thinking about earlier? You don't normally space out like that"

Walking towards the car, a black 2015 Toyota Camry, and getting in the passenger seat, I looked over at him and said, "Just some weird dream I had. I'd tell you about it, but I'll wait till we get to school so I can tell Jonathan too."

* * *

At School: Homeroom

Kyler and I were sitting in the back of the classroom, looking over the schedules the teacher gave us as we walked in the room.

"We really only have three classes together?" Looking at the schedules again, I realized that Kyler was right, the only classes we had together were first period Science, second period English, and fourth period Music.

"Of course AP Psychology would mess up my entire schedule…" Just then, we glanced up and saw that Jonathan was walking into the room, and we waved him over to our table.

"How's it going guys? It's been a while." He sat down and immediately looked at our schedules.

"Yea, it has been a while hasn't it. How was your trip to Traverse Town?" Jonathan had gone to Traverse Town with his parents for an end of summer vacation, and he had been gone for the past month.

"It was pretty good. I got to see some of my family that I hadn't seen in a long time." He looks up from the schedules, "You only have three classes with me and Kyler?"

Chuckling at the fact that he said the exact same thing as Kyler, "Yeah, apparently AP Psychology messed up my entire schedule… What can you do right?"

Kyler shrugged his shoulders before his eyes lit up, "Okay Garrett, now that Jonathan is here, can you tell us what your dream was about?"

Jonathan looked at me confused, "Dream? What kind of dream are we talking about?"

I rolled my eyes at Kyler's impatience before proceeding to tell them about my dream.

"And that's when I woke up, pretty strange right?" Kyler was speechless as he just nodded at me.

"And you have no idea who that girl was in the picture?" Typical Jonathan, of course that's the thing he wants to know.

"Nope, I've never seen her before in my life… And don't you have a girlfriend? Why are you asking about this person?"

He held his hands up in a defensive gesture, "Hey man, I was just curious… You don't have dreams very often. And when you do, there's never girls in them, it's normally of…"

I gave him a death glare, and he promptly stopped talking. "I know what I normally have dreams, of… Well, more like nightmares, but you know what I mean."

Jonathan looked at me apologetically "Er… Sorry man, I was just curious… But still, I wonder who it could be."

Chuckling, I looked between the two of them, "To be honest, it was probably the pepperoni on that pizza I ate last night or something…" Glancing at the door as another student walked into the classroom and my eyes went wide as I stuttered, "Or… Maybe it wasn't…"

Jonathan and Kyler, both realizing my sudden change in demeanor looked over and saw a girl they didn't recognize walking into the room. She looked like she was about 5'6" with shoulder length chestnut brown hair, fair skin, and deep blue eyes framed by her glasses. At the same time, they both turned their heads towards me.

Kyler was the first to talk, "There's no way…"

Jonathan, noticing that I didn't say anything decided to press on, "Garrett, is that the person in your dream?"

Speechless, I could only nod as I watched her walk to the teacher at the desk, "Um, this is room 308 right?"

The teacher looked at her and smiled softly, extending her hand towards the student, "Indeed it is. You must be new here, I'm Ms. Casey."

The mystery girl reached out and gently shook the teacher's hand, "Yea I am, I actually just moved here from Destiny Islands. My name is Hannah."

Ms. Casey began looking through the few remaining schedules on her desk until she found Hannah's and she handed it to her. "Well Hannah, allow me to be the first person to welcome you to Twilight High." She pointed to different parts of the schedule, showing Hannah where the rooms, and times of each class were. "It appears you're in here with me for 7th period Statistics, I hope you have a good first day!"

Hannah thanked her before sitting down in an empty seat at a table in the front of the class, sitting alone as she was nervous about her first day at a new school.

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Again, thank you guys for reading my story, I hope you all enjoyed it. Remember, if you have any suggestions or ideas, please review and tell me about them, and maybe I'll put them in the story! Until next time.


	3. Chapter 3

Hello everyone, welcome to my third chapter of Rise of Darkness. This chapter is a lot longer than the past two have been. I hope you all enjoy it, and please leave a review or follow this story if you like it, it would really mean a lot to me! Also, if you have any ideas for the story, be sure to let me know, because maybe it will end up in the story, who knows!

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Day One

The bell rang and we all left our homeroom to head to first period. Thankfully Mr. Smith lets his students sit wherever they want, so Jonathan, Kyler and I sat at one of the lab tables in the back of the room.

As we sat down, Kyler chuckled and looked at Jonathan, "Jonathan, I can't believe that the first thing you asked was if he knew who that girl was. Like come on, the giant key coming out of nowhere, or those dark shadow things? That's what had me confused when told us."

Setting his backpack down on the floor beside him, Jonathan looked back at Kyler and said, "Honestly, that sounds like some shit that would happen in a video game, and we all know how much we play video games, so it's not really that weird if you think about it." He looked over at me and I was still silent, my brain moving a million miles per hour as I tried to process what happened. First, I have this weird dream, and then this mystery person that was in it suddenly shows up at my school as a new student? "Hello, earth to Garrett, you okay buddy?"

Shaking my head to snap myself out of my trance, I look at Jonathan, "Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm good, just… Really confused I guess."

Just then, the late bell rang, and our teacher stood up to start the class. Since it was the first day of school, it was a very boring, typical first day. He handed out the syllabus to all the students in the class, and we went over it, asking if any of us had any questions. He told us that we had a small lab fee that we had to pay to cover the materials that we would be getting for our experiments and such. At the end of class, he told us that we needed to get our syllabuses signed by our parents and bring them back by the end of the week.

The bell rang again, and we headed to our second period. English class was practically the same as first period. We went over the syllabus, our teacher told us a little about herself, and all the other stuff that happens on a typical first day of school. Third period though… That was going to be an annoying class. AP Psychology. I wasn't worried about it being a hard class, it was just the only class that I didn't have any friends in. Well… anyone that I was willing to talk to at least. Jonathan and Kyler are probably the only people that I would actually consider friends. But as I was waiting for the bell to ring for class to start, in she walked. Nervous as ever and picking a seat in the back of the room, only a couple seats away from me.

As I sat there glancing at her, I could only think, "Hmm, maybe this class won't be that bad after all". As I sat through the boring class, I would glance at her every once in a while, trying to figure out why she was mysteriously in my dream. The next thing I remember, my psychology teacher was standing in front of me tapping my desk to get my attention.

"Garrett, are you okay?" I jumped a little in my seat, startled into reality, and I glanced around, realizing that I was the only person in the classroom besides him.

"Yeah, just… Preoccupied with something, sorry Mr. Owens." I started to put my things in my backpack and stood up, heading out of the classroom.

Mr. Owens stopped me as I was about to leave his classroom, "Well, whatever it is, I hope you get it figured out. I don't know what I would do if my smartest student were to be distracted all the time." He grinned before patting me on the shoulder as I left the room.

Fourth period, probably the best class of the day for me. I walked in to see the rows of chairs, and as I looked around, I saw Jonathan and Kyler, already sitting down with an open chair near them. Walking over, I sat beside Kyler, waiting for class to start.

"Dude, History class was soooo boring. Apparently, we got Mr. Woods, so Kyler and I basically fell asleep all class."

"Dude speak for yourself. You fell asleep, I had to deal with your snoring the entire time. What about you Garrett? How was Psychology?"

"It was okay, typical first day you know?"

The bell rang, and our music teacher stood up in front of the class, and started to introduce himself. "Good afternoon everyone. As some of you know, I'm Mr. Rico, but you can just call me Rico if there isn't another teacher in the room… I hate all those formalities, they make me feel old. Unlike most classes, I don't have a syllabus because I think they're boring, so what we're going to do is one by one, down the rows, you are going to stand up, say your name, and what instruments you play, and an instrument you would like to learn, starting with you." He pointed to someone in the first seat of the first row. They stood up and introduced themselves. It went on for a while, most people saying they played piano, clarinet, guitar, or singing. I pretty much zoned out until I saw Jonathan stand up in the corner of my eye.

"My name is Jonathan, I play piano, guitar, bass guitar, and sing. If I had to pick an instrument to learn, it would have to be the saxophone" He sat down, and Kyler stood up. Before he even started talking I started chuckling, knowing what was about to happen.

He grinned at me before he started talking. "My name is Kyler, and I play piano, guitar, bass guitar, clarinet, flute, cello…" He had to have gone on for like 3 minutes. He plays so many instruments it's ridiculous, he can pick up a new instrument and learn it so fast, it's unfair. "If I had to pick a new instrument to learn, it would be the violin." Ah, the violin… the only instrument he gave up… twice. Every time he tries to learn how to play the violin, he gives up because he gets frustrated with it.

I stood up next, and said, "My name is Garrett, I play piano, guitar, and drums. I think that if I learn a new instrument, it will probably be the bass." I sat back down, zoning out everyone again until it got to the end of our row, where, what do you know, the new girl was in our class, and I didn't even realize it.

Nervously she stood up, and in a soft voice she introduced herself, "Hello, my name is Hannah, and I play the piano and I sing. I want to learn how to play the drums and guitar."

Jonathan and Kyler both glanced at me smirking, looking at them I whispered, "Really guys? Don't be ridiculous."

Kyler rolled his eyes at me before saying, "Garrett, you're like, the best drummer in the school. You're like… way better than a 17 year old kid should be."

I just shook my head at them before zoning out again, waiting for class to be over. My next class was study hall, so I basically had a free period. That class went by really fast. My teacher was chill, he said that we could use our phones unless there was another teacher in the room. The bell rang for lunch and I headed to the cafeteria to eat. I met Jonathan and Kyler on the way there, and we all got our food before sitting at an empty table. We ate, and Jonathan told us about his vacation. We talked about what our plans were for after school. Typical lunch talk, you know? Soon enough the bell rang for sixth period, and we all went our separate ways. Surprisingly, this was the only class that Jonathan and Kyler didn't have together… Those lucky jerks.

I made my way to the reception desk. I was a student assistant this period along with two other students, so it was basically another free class. Our job was to basically sit in the chairs at the front, and if a teacher needed copies made, or if a parent brought something in for a student, it was our job to take it to them. Thankfully it was the first day, so we didn't actually have to do anything. Soon enough, it was time for seventh period, so I made my way there. Looking at my schedule to make sure I remembered what class I had, I started making my way there.

"Ms. Casey, AP Statistics. Sure to be another boring class." Boy was I wrong.

Ms. Casey, being a math teacher, was more systematic than most teachers. As we walked in, she had a seating chart on the board, showing each table, and our names at each seat. I was in the back of the room, at a table with three other people, and what do you know…

I looked back at the table I was supposed to sit at, and sure enough, Hannah was sitting in the seat right next to mine. But what I didn't expect was Logan standing there beside her, and she looked very annoyed at him. Walking over to my seat, I set my stuff down rather loudly and looked at him, I really didn't want to have to deal with his shit. He was probably the most annoying person in the entire school. He's one of those kids with a sense of entitlement, and he thinks everyone loves him.

"Logan, it's only the first day and you're already being a jerk to the new girl? Maybe if you spent as much time paying attention in class as you did talking shit you wouldn't get detention all the time."

He looked at me. "Garrett… you really think I care about anything you have to say? Why would I care about a chubby nerd that sits at home and plays video games all day because he has no friends?" Okay, he's not wrong… I'm not the skinniest person in the world, but I'm not really fat either, it's one of those weird in between things.

I chuckled a little bit before responding, "You know, after all these years, those are still the only insults you can come up with? Do I have to remind you about how I embarrassed you in front of all your 'friends' last year" I made air quotes as I said that, and unable to think of anything in response, he mumbled something under his breath and walked back to his seat.

As I sat down in my seat, I say Hannah brush a strand of hair out of her face and turn to me, "Thanks for that, he's been annoying me since last period."

I chuckled and looker at her, noticing the faint freckles on her face, "No problem. He's a jerk, and he thinks he's like the coolest kid in school or something. Hopefully someday he'll learn that he's not really that cool."

"Well anyway, I'm Hannah, and you're… Garrett, right? You were in my music class?"

"Yup, that's me, the resident school drummer."

The bell rang, and Ms. Casey started class, going over the syllabus like every other class and talking about how at the end of the first quarter we could pick our own seats. However, the only thing I could think about was, "What got into me? The only time I ever stood up to Logan like that was when he made me really mad… And I never talk to people that I don't know…"

The bell rang for the end of the day, and Hannah stood up, packing her bag and smiling at me and extending her hand, "Well Garrett, is was nice to meet you."

I looked at her and smiled nervously, gently shaking her hand, "It was really nice to meet you too, see you tomorrow." She left, and I headed to meet Kyler at the car so we could head home.

He was already waiting for me, and I got in the car once I got there, "How were your last two classes Kyler?"

He started the car and started driving home, "Ugh, they were so boring, how about you?"

"Well sixth was student assistant at the reception desk, so you can imagine how that went."

"You're at the reception desk? Lucky! I'm in the frickin copy room."

I laughed at his response, "Hah! That sucks for you man… But you won't believe what happened in seventh period." I proceeded to tell him about the events that transpired in Statistics class.

"Dude, really? That's awesome! Who knows… maybe it's destiny or some shit? Considering you never do anything like that."

"Maybe…" I looked out the window of the car as we made our way home.

* * *

Two hours later

Kyler and I were playing Super Smash Bros. Melee while we waited for his mom to make dinner. Our matches were always really close. He would pick Sheik, and I would pick captain falcon. I would start off really strong, but then I would choke in the middle, and it always come back to whether or not I could land a knee or not. Most of the time I was able to clutch it out, but sometimes I would slip up and he would beat me. But, this was not one of those times apparently.

"Dude there's no way you're going to beat me. You SD'd and you're down a whole stock." Indeed, I had SD'd and was on my last life with 90 damage, and then it happened. I was in the zone again. I was dash dancing, and faking him out. I hit Kyler with the random side-b and followed it up with an up air into knee combo.

"No way dude… seriously? The cheeky side-b and you killed me? That's so lucky."

But I wasn't done just yet. As he spawned, I avoided him, waiting for the invincibility to time out, and I don't even know what happened… I hit him with a dash attack, followed by a neutral air, and before he landed, I hit him with a down air. I read his tech to the right and grabbed him, throwing him down, and landing another neutral air, before hitting the hard knee… there was no way he was coming back from it, he was way too far off the stage to make a recovery, but something in me decided to risk it all… I sprinted across the stage and jumped at him, and without a second thought, I went for the falcon punch, and then everything slowed down. I have no idea why I was going for this… If I miss, I would lose after the biggest comeback of my life… but I paused the game at just the right moment, and as I looked at where I paused it… I landed the falcon punch on the edge of the screen… I popped off so loud.

"Holy crap dude! You just got bopped! No way I'm going to beat you my ass! Get falcon punched dude!"

Kyler just looked at the screen speechless. It all happened so fast, he couldn't even comprehend it. I had just hit him with the ultimate form of disrespect, and he didn't even know what to do. He mumbled under his breath, "Damn, that's crazy…"

We played a few more games until his mom walked into the room.

"Hey guys, I need some eggs for dinner, can one of you go to the store and get some?" I looked at Kyler and stood up.

"I got it." I put my shoes on and made my way to the door as I heard Kyler.

"You know I have the car keys, right?"

I looked back at him and nodded, "Yeah, but I'm gonna walk. It's not that far."

On my way to the store, I decided I would walk through the park because it was faster. As I was walking, I saw something out of the corner of my eye, and I turned towards it, only to see that there was nothing there. I resumed walking and again, I say something move. Once again, nothing was there, and I resorted to thinking that I was going crazy, until all of a sudden, I was surrounded by those shadows from my dream, and I saw them rise from the ground, their yellow eyes staring at me.

As I looked around nervously, I heard the voice from my dream again. "You gained the power to fight. There will be times you have to fight. Keep your light burning strong."

Suddenly, the Keyblades from my dream appeared in my hands, "Oh they're not going to believe this…"

* * *

And there you have it! the third chapter completed, and Garrett finally has the Keyblades in real life. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Like I said before, I need some help with last names, so if you think of any good ones, leave them in a review! Until next time, Mainwolf out.


	4. Chapter 4

Alright, I'm back with another chapter of Rise of Darkness! It took a lot longer to get this chapter out than it should have, but that's because I was busy with finals week, and I have been sick for a while now. In the last chapter, I didn't plan on writing that little segment with Super Smash Bros. but it kinda just happened. Some of you might not have understood any of what was said in that part, and if that is so, I do apologize. But, onto this chapter, I know it's going to be pretty short compared to last chapter, but it leave us at a decent stopping point. Once again, I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

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The Power to Fight

Looking around, I realized that I was surrounded, and the best idea I could come up with was to take them out quickly before the overwhelmed me. Gripping my Keyblades firmly, I rushed forward and slashed two of the shadow creatures in half. I watched them disappear and was confused for a second before remembering that I was in a fight, and I didn't have time to stop and think about it. I turned around just in time to see one of the creatures jump at me, and I brought up my Keyblades to block it. I then sliced through it before turning to the next set of shadows. I quickly dispatched two more, and as I went for a third, it sunk into the ground and started moving around me.

"What the fuck…" I turned around to follow it, and as it came out of the ground, I felt a sharp pain in my right leg. "Shit!" I turned to see the fourth shadow had slashed me in the side of the leg. "How could I have forgot about this one?" I quickly dispatched it before feeling another sharp pain in my left shoulder. I hissed in pain before slashing at it with the Keyblade in my right hand, and I looked around to see if there were any more of the shadow creatures. I saw there wasn't, and let out a sigh of relief before dropping to my knees as I caught my breath.

"Damn, those are sneaky little things aren't they…" I took a minute to look at the gash on my leg, and thankfully it wasn't too bad. After that, I tried to look at the one on my shoulder blade, but I couldn't see it very well. It didn't hurt too bad, but it still stung. I would have to get some potions while I was at the store, "Crap, I still have to get to the store… And I don't have enough money to buy any potions…" I stood up and began trudging my way to the store before noticing something, and stopped. I looked back and saw munny on the ground where I killed the shadow creatures.

"What? These things had munny on them? Ah well… Their loss" I limped back and picked up all the munny they dropped and counted it. "Nice, I can get a couple potions with this."

* * *

I got to the small store and looked around. Thankfully there weren't a lot of people here, so there was no one to question the gashes on my leg and shoulder. I made my way to the small pharmacy in the store and bought three potions before making my way to the bathroom. I walked in and went into an empty stall where I quickly downed one of the potions.

"I never get used to the taste of these… You would think they would find a way to make them taste better." I watched my leg start to stitch itself back together, and I flinched at the slight sting that I felt on both my leg and my shoulder. Once the pain went away, I looked at my leg to see light pink skin where there was a gash. "That's definitely going to leave a scar." The scratch was about 7 inches long on the side of my leg. I looked into the mirror in the stall and turned around to see my shoulder. My shirt was torn, and there were two more patches of pink skin where the shadow had clawed me. "Well, at least these aren't the worst scars I have." I washed the blood off my leg before making my way out of the stall and leaving the bathroom. I wasn't going to be able to wash the blood off my shoulder very easily, so I would have to buy a new shirt and take a shower when I got home.

I made my way through the store and found a black T-shirt before going over and grabbing a dozen eggs. I walked up to the register and paid for the items before walking into the bathroom again to change into the new shirt and throw away my old one. Once I did that, I began the walk home.

I made my way home and I walked into the kitchen and set the eggs down on the counter while Kyler's mom continued cooking, "Here you go Ms. Kara."

"Thank you Garrett. Dinner will be done in about 30 minutes."

"Alright, I'm going to take a quick shower." I made my way up to my room and grabbed a fresh change of clothes, and walked into the bathroom. As I was in the shower, I made sure to wash all the blood off my shoulder. While washing off, my mind wandered back to the fight I had in the park. What are those creatures? And why did they attack me? And where did these Keyblade things come from?

I was snapped out of my thinking as I heard a loud knock on the bathroom door, "Hey Garrett, Dinner's almost done." I quickly finished washing myself and turned off the water. I got out and dried myself, got dressed, and threw my dirty clothes in my hamper… Boy, Kyler was going to go crazy when I tell him about what happened after dinner.

* * *

After Kyler and I helped clean up dinner, we made our way upstairs. Once we got up there, I stopped him, "Dude, have I got a story for you." I pulled him into my room and told him all about what happened in the park.

"So first, you have this crazy dream with a mystery person in it, then that person shows up at school, and then this thing happens in the same day? I'm starting to think you're just messing around dude"

"You really think I would make this up?"

He chuckled before responding, "Dude, unless you have some way to prove that this thing actually happened…" I stopped him before showing him my leg where the gash had been.

"Does that look fake? I had to buy a potion at the store to heal this" I turned around and started pulling up my shirt. "Or how about these scratches on my shoulder?"

He stopped talking and let out a gasp, "Oh… Ok, well I'm starting to believe you then, but what about these Keyblade things?"

I brought my shirt back down and turned around, "I don't know dude, they kinda just show up from outa nowhere." I held my right hand in front of myself and looked at it for a second, before the Blazing Fury Keyblade suddenly materialized in my hand, and Kyler leapt back in surprise.

"Whoa, how did you do that man?"

"I don't know, I kinda just imagined it being in my hand" I did the same with my left hand, and imagined my Swift Judgement Keyblade in it, and it appeared as well. "Well, I guess that explains how I make them appear" Just like that, I made them dematerialize and looked back at Kyler, "So do you believe me now?"

Speechless, he just nodded his head in shock. "Good, now how about we find something to do until we go to bed?"

* * *

So that's it! Garrett had his first fight with the Heartless, and he although he didn't make it out completely unscathed, he was okay in the end. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and tune in next time to find out what happens to our young Keyblade weilder!


	5. Chapter 5

Hey everyone, here with another upload. I know it's been a long time, but I have had a little trouble figuring out how I want to have Garrett go through life until he gets to a couple important parts of the story. This is going to be a really short chapter, and that's mainly because this is something that I feel deserved its own chapter. It's going to reveal a little bit of where he came from, but that's it, the rest is going to be learned throughout the story. I hope you enjoy the chapter!

* * *

Remnants of The Past

A couple weeks have gone by, and now Jonathan knew about my Keyblades, although we still had no idea why I had them all of a sudden, or why those shadow things kept attacking me. I have had a few encounters with the shadows since the night in the park, but I was able to handle myself a little better as I grew accustomed to the Keyblades. Hopefully I would be able to learn more about the creatures as more time goes by, but for now, I was just dealing with them as they showed up.

As for school, well… School was as boring as ever. Go to class, do the work, and go home. As for Hannah, we have had a few short conversations since the first day, but that was about it. It was mainly my doing though. I couldn't afford to let anyone else in. I had been hurt too many times before, and I didn't want to have to deal with that kind of pain again. She would try and start a conversation once in a while, and I would always find a way to avoid it somehow.

"Garrett?"

I was pulled from my thoughts to see Hannah looking at me with slight concern on her face, "Huh?"

"I asked if you were doing okay. You're quieter than normal today."

"Oh, yeah, I'm just a little stressed. I have a few things on my mind."

She nodded and smiled softly at me "Alright, just wanted to make sure you were okay."

"Yeah, I'm fine." I decided I would change the subject before she asked any more questions, "Hannah, you're new to Twilight Town, right? Where did you move here from?"

Realizing I didn't really want to talk to her about it, she decided not to press any further on the topic, and she answered my question, "My parents and I moved here from Destiny Islands."

I nodded slightly, "Are you liking it here so far?"

"I like it, but it's a lot different, it's really loud and busy here. On the islands, it was always peaceful."

"It sounds like a nice place to live. The business around here is a little much for me." I sighed and went back to my work and muttered to myself, "I bet that wouldn't have happened if we lived somewhere like that." A single tear started making it's way down my face, and I tried to wipe it away before Hannah saw it, albeit unsuccessfully.

"Garrett… Are you okay?"

I sighed, frustrated with myself for not keeping my emotions in check a little better, "I'm okay, I'd rather not talk about it." I asked the teacher if I could go to the restroom, and I recollected myself before returning to class, focusing on the work at hand until the end of the day.

* * *

So that's it! Like I said, it's a short chapter, but it reveals a little bit about our protagonist. The next two chapters are probably going to be some really important chapters, and the story should start to pick up some after them. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and are looking forward to the next one as much as I am. Please feel free to review. Positive feedback, suggestions and constructive criticism are all welcomed! I'll see you all next time!


	6. Chapter 6

So, it's been over a year since I've updated this fic, and I honestly don't know why. I've had tons of ideas running around through my head this whole time, I just didn't have the motivation to put them on paper I guess, but I finally did it, and I think that I'm finally going to start seriously working on this fic. I'm really excited about this chapter to be honest, I decided to experiment with different points of view, and I like the way they turned out, and I hope you all love it as well.

* * *

 **SORROWFUL TEARS**

 **GARRETT POV**

There are days where things seem, well, almost normal. I can hang out with Jonathan and Kyler without any worries like a normal teenager. And then there are days like today. It's currently 4 am, and I'm sitting on my roof with my knees to my chest, my face currently stained with tears, and my right hand resting on my abdomen. I woke up from my nightmare about half an hour ago, I was reliving the moment my parents died. That's the only thing I remember dreaming anymore, besides the strange Keyblade dream from roughly a month ago. My skin is covered in goosebumps from the chilly September air, but I don't care. Before I know it, the sun rises over the horizon and I robotically stand up and climb back through the window of my room, turning off my alarm once I get inside, I won't be needing it this morning.

I get some fresh clothes out for the day and head into the hallway to take a shower, the house is still dark since no one is awake yet. I wash myself thoroughly, making sure to clean my tear stained face. When I get out, I get dressed and brush my teeth before looking at myself in the mirror, there's nothing I can do to hide the dark circles under my puffy red eyes. Kyler would know for sure about my lack of sleep, and my sorrowful tears. He had never seen me cry, in fact, no one had seen me cry for years. I would rather die than let that happen, but he knew that I cried often, there was no denying it.

After I freshen up as best I can, I get my things from my room and head downstairs to the kitchen, putting on a large pot of coffee. I'm going to need it with how little sleep I got, and God knows I won't be getting any sleep tonight either, I never do on that day… Another tear streams down my face, and I quickly wipe it away, trying to at least act like I'm okay, knowing that Miss Kara would be awake soon. I then grab the finished pot of coffee and pour myself a large mug of the bitter substance, without putting any cream or sugar in, I begin downing it.

* * *

 **KYLER POV**

I wake for school and make my usual trip to the bathroom in order to tell Garrett to hurry up with his shower. To my surprise, the bathroom is empty, and his door is open with his light off, which means he's already awake and prepared to leave. I shrug my shoulders and get my own clothes before taking my own shower and getting ready for school. I head downstairs afterwards to grab a bagel or something to eat, but I stop when I see Garrett sitting at the bar, blankly staring off with his puffy red eyes and large cup of coffee. So it was one of those nights, I wish he would let us in. Jonathan and I would go to the ends of the Earth for our friend, but he's just so scared, so… broken. As I watched him pour himself more coffee, I knew, there would be no mask of sarcasm today, just the depressed broken shell of him.

I walked past him into the kitchen and grabbed a bagel. I popped it into the toaster before pouring myself a glass of milk. I didn't even try to talk to him, I knew he would want to be alone. After I ate, I pulled out my phone and looked at the time. When I saw that it was time to go, I stood up and nodded my head towards the door, he knew what I was saying. Lifelessly he stood and followed me out the door to the car. I drove in silence as Garrett somberly looked out the window.

School was a drag all day, Jonathan and I were concerned for Garrett. He hadn't been this bad in a long time, and we just knew that if he was this bad today, then tomorrow would be hell for him. He wouldn't be going to school tomorrow. He's skipped school that day for the past seven years. In the beginning, I feared that I would come home to see him laying lifeless on the floor, but thankfully that never happened. Jonathan and I knew there was nothing that we could do, we would just have to wait for him to pull out of this, and be there to help him up like we always have been.

* * *

 **HANNAH POV**

Today was a weird day so far. I have a few friends at school, but I wasn't paying attention to them at all. Something was wrong with Garrett, and it was very obvious. He wasn't paying any attention in his classes at all, in fact, we had a test in AP Psychology, and I don't even think he did it.

About a week ago he asked if I wanted to sit with him and his friends at lunch, so I had been doing that since. His friends Jonathan and Kyler seem very nice, and they talk about music a lot. Apparently, Mr. Rico asked them to play a song at the homecoming pep rally next month, so they are trying to decide what song to do. But today, they were just somberly looking at Garrett as he sat with his head down, an empty energy drink on the table before him along with his untouched food.

"Is he okay?" I mouth to them when they look over to greet me, and Kyler just frowns and shakes his head. I felt bad because something was wrong, but I didn't know what. He's normally so nice and happy, well he is when you can get past the short responses he normally gives. I've gotten used to them by now, we took personality tests in AP Psych, and I found out that he's an introvert, so I've come to learn that his short responses have more to do with the fact that he's shy than the fact that he doesn't like people. Whatever was wrong right now, it must really be affecting him bad.

I walked into my last class, AP Statistics and sat down in my seat at our back table. One of the people at our table, my friend April, started talking to me. I don't really know what she was saying, I was totally tuned out. My focus was on the door, waiting for Garrett to walk in so I could try and talk to him. Soon enough, he shuffled into the room and made his way to the table. Thankfully he didn't put his head down like he had most of the day, and I was going to say something to him to get his attention when he looked at me.

Suddenly, my breath hitched in my throat. I looked at his face for the first time all day, and I noticed the dark circles, showing his lack of sleep, then I looked into his eyes, they were puffy and red. Had he been crying? That's when I noticed something else in his eyes, pain. Something was very wrong, and I needed to know what, but he quickly looked away from me. I reached out to lightly tough his arm, but he noticed and quickly retracted his arm. I frowned but decided to leave him be. I hope he'll be okay.

* * *

 **THE NEXT MORNING**

 **GARRETT POV**

I could hear Kyler getting ready to leave. He wouldn't knock on my door, him and Miss Kara gave up a long time ago. I was awake all-night last night, although I'm not surprised. Every year, September 26th, I do nothing but weep, missing my parents. I should have died with them, I barely survived surgery… I wish I didn't. My hand rests on my abdomen again as the memory flashes before me.

I stay in bed all morning, sleep evading me even through my exhaustion. I only slept three hours yesterday, and not a wink last night, but my body refuses to sleep. A little after noon I force myself to get up and take a shower. Once I get out, I decide to get out of the house for a while, so I go for a walk. I put on some shoes and walk down to the park, little did I know, this would be a turning point.

I walk through the park leisurely, not really paying attention, when suddenly some of the shadow things surround me. I groan and summon my Keyblades, really not wanting to deal with them today. I start to fight them, swinging my Keyblades wildly as I try to take them out, but they just keep spawning. I was beginning to grow overwhelmed as they kept coming, there must be about twenty of them now. As they kept coming, other strange enemies started to show up with them. Some of them looked kind of like the other shadows except these ones had red claws and were wearing some kind of helmet, and the others were large and round. I couldn't handle this, there were too many of them, I didn't know what to do. I was growing weak, and they were closing in on me. I had cuts and bruises all over my body, and whenever I did manage to take one out, more took their place.

As I continued to grow weak, a thought came to me. Maybe this was my escape, my release from all this pain. I couldn't take anymore, and I dropped to my knees as my Keyblades slipped from my hands. This was it, I would finally rejoin my family. I kneeled there with closed eyes, welcoming death, and they jumped on me, attacking my defenseless body, and the world went dark.

* * *

 **UNKNOWN POV**

I was going for my normal afternoon jog, my unruly brown hair bobbing as I ran. I looked over to say something to my wife, but when I didn't see her red hair beside me, I remembered she wasn't joining me today, she was at home hanging up pictures in the living room. The rest of the things from our old home on the islands finally came, so she wanted to finish decorating and unpacking. I was snapped out of my daze when one of my large feet tripped on something, and I almost fell, but I was able to stop myself. When I regained my balance and looked around, I realized I was already in the park. I shrugged my shoulders and was about to resume jogging when something caught my attention. I looked over and saw a large mob of black figures, so I decided to jog over and see what was going on. I got closer, and I was able to make out the shapes.

"Heartless? Heartless!" I was shocked, they hadn't been seen in years! I tried to summon my Keyblade, the Kingdom Key, but it wouldn't materialize. I remembered, I hadn't been able to summon my Keyblade for a very long time. I guess magic would have to do.

"Blizaga!" I extended my hand and shouted as shards of ice launched at the swarm of Heartless. They jumped and looked at me, realizing that I was a threat to whatever they were doing. The Shadows sank into the ground and quickly made their way over to me as the Soldiers and Large Bodies made their way towards me a little slower. The Shadows surrounded me, and as soon as they rose from the ground I casted a Fira, the balls of fire spun around me, hitting and killing most of them. I finished the rest of the shadows off with another blizzard before turning my attention to the Soldiers and Large Bodies. One of the soldiers jumped into the air and started spinning at me.

"Reflega" A shield of energy surrounded me, blocking the attack. I quickly aerial dodged into the middle of the enemies before the reflect magic dispersed, hitting many of the heartless. Finally, I cast a Magnega to capture the rest of the heartless, and two Thundaga's to finish them off. I quickly looked around, no more heartless were spawning, and I turned to look at what the heartless were originally focused on, there on the ground was the bloody form of a kid and two Keyblades laying beside him.

I ran towards his body and rolled him onto his back, he was unconscious, and blood was flowing out of multiple wounds on his body. His shirt was ruined, and his jeans weren't much better. I put my fingers to his neck, his pulse was there, but it was faint.

"Curaga" I hovered my hands over his unmoving body, and a green glow briefly surrounded him. His wounds didn't close, but the bleeding slowed down.

"I need to get him home, Kairi can heal him better than I can" I lift his limp body, he's heavy, but I lift him nonetheless. His Keyblades dematerialize, but I think nothing of it, it didn't even register to me that he was a Keyblade wielder. I took off towards the house in a dead sprint before deciding to glide because it's faster. I lift off the ground, although I'm a little shaky because I haven't flown in a while. I make do and show up at the door of our house minutes later. I barge into the door and rush through the living room, straight to the guest room, which only has sheets and pillows for the bed at this point, and quickly lay his bloody body down.

"Kairi! I need your help, it's an emergency!" I rip off his shirt, revealing his blood-stained body with open wounds all over. I look him over, stopping briefly when I see the large gruesome scar on the lower right of his abdomen, but I quickly dismiss it before putting him on his side so I can get his shirt out from underneath his body. I notice that there is another, nearly identical scar on his back, almost as if something had stabbed all the way through him. I lay him down again on his back when Kairi bursts into the room.

"Sora, what's happening?" She sees my arms and hands stained with blood, my white shirt ruined as well from holding him against me. I'm panting heavily from fighting and flying him back, I'm not as young as I once was.

"H-Heartless…" Her eyes widen when I gasp it out, and she quickly comes over to look at his wounds. She hovers his hands over his unconscious form and casts a Curaga. His body once again briefly glows green, the smaller cuts heal fine, but the larger cuts only close slightly. She bites her lip as she looks at him, trying to figure out what steps to take.

"Go get me a large bowl of warm water, a couple rags and some rubbing alcohol" She says this without looking up at me. I stand and walk out of the room, and I go wash my hands and arms off, but they are still stained a light pink.

"Good enough" I don't bother to change my shirt, I'll just have to throw it away later. I then grab a large mixing bowl from the cabinet and fill it with warm water. After that, I grab a bottle of rubbing alcohol and some clean rags, along with a towel to dry our hands when we're done. I also grab a few Ethers on my way back to the guest room. I walk in and place the bowl, rubbing alcohol, and rags on the small table beside the bed. I pop one of the ethers into my mouth, chewing on the gummy like medicine, feeling my energy quickly recovering. I put the rest of them on the table along with the rest of the items, knowing Kairi and I would be needing them.

Kairi and I begin to wash his body, the water in the bowl gradually turning red with his blood as we clean him with the rags. After we clean his upper body, we clean his wounds with the rubbing alcohol. Next was his lower body, Kairi blushed and looked at me.

"We-We'll need to get him some clothes, yours won't fit him. How about you clean him, and I'll go to the store to buy some." I nod to her, and she awkwardly gets up, checking the boy's shirt size and walks out of the room, closing the door behind her. I reach and undress him the rest of the way, looking over the rest of his injuries, feeling slightly awkward myself, but he needs to be cleaned so that his wounds don't get infected. I empty the bowl of the bloody water, refill it, and grab some new rags before beginning the slow task of cleaning his wounds.

About an hour later, Kairi walks back into the house with a bag of clothes. Some white T-shirts, a couple pairs of sweatpants, and some boxers. I grab them from her before walking back into the room, closing the door behind me. I gently put the boxers on him and then let her know it's okay to come in. She walks in with some gauze and medical tape, and we dress his wounds. After we get his legs bandaged, I slide on the sweatpants, and then we repeat the process with his upper half. After we get him bandaged and dressed, we put him beneath the covers, switching them with clean ones in the process.

Kairi tells me to go shower and put on some clean clothes while she tries to heal him a little more. She was always better with healing magic than I was. I nod and reluctantly leave the room to go and shower. Once I get out, I head back to the guest room to see Kairi slumped, her body exhausted from trying to heal the boy.

"Here, take this and go take a shower yourself. Then take a nap, you've done all you can for now" She looks at me hand, seeing the Ether in it, and takes it. She nods at me and stands, leaving the room, and I follow her out, closing the door behind me.

* * *

 **HANNAH POV**

I get out of my car as I arrive home from school, I walk into the house and go to get myself a glass of water. Once inside, I see a mixing bowl in the sink, stained red.

"Mom, Dad, I'm home" I walk into the living room to see my father sitting on the couch exhausted. Some of our pictures are hanging on the wall, but the rest are still leaning against the box, and one of them is on the floor, the glass shattered.

"Dad, are you okay?"

"Oh, hey Hannah. Um, not really. I was on my jog and in the park I found a boy unconscious. He was pretty beat up, so I brought him here. Your mother and I tried to heal him, but his wounds were pretty bad. She used a lot of energy, so she's taking a nap right now." He pats the couch beside him, and I walk over. When I sit down beside him, he wraps his arm around my shoulder and pulls me against him. I curl into him, his protective form always relaxing me.

"Princess, do you remember when I told you about when your mother and I were your age? About our adventures, and the heartless, and Master Xehanort." I give a slight nod, not really knowing why he's bringing this up. He had told me many times about their adventures, they seemed like something out of a fairytale.

"Well, something's happened, and it seems like the Heartless have returned, I saw them attacking the boy, I took them out with magic."

"I-Is the boy going to be okay dad?" I look up at him. If these Heartless have returned, then something really bad must be happening.

"I think so, your mother and I have healed him the best we can, but he was hurt pretty bad. Sadly, we don't know who he is, and we can't take him to the hospital because they most likely wouldn't believe me if I told them what happened. Plus, your mother and I can take care of him about as well as the hospital could."

"Can I see him?" My father nods and we get up. He walks with me to the guest room and opens the door. I step inside first and immediately gasp when I see who is in the bed. All I can see is his bruised face, but I know it's him.

"What is it Hannah?" My dad walks into the room behind me, placing a hand on my shoulder.

"Daddy, that's one of my friends from school." I bite my lip as I look at his unconscious form, I can't believe what has happened to him.

"I'll give you a minute" My dad gives me a gentle hug before walking out of the room. I stand there, feeling sad for my friend. He had such a bad day at school yesterday, and he wasn't there today, and now she finds out that he almost died. She stood there for a few more minutes before turning to walk out of the room. As she was about to leave, she heard a tone coming from inside the room. She turned back around to see his cell phone one the bedside table, it was probably his parents asking where he was. She went over to look and was slightly surprised to see Kyler's name on the screen but decided to pick it up.

"Hello Kyler, it's Hannah"

"H-Hannah? Why do you have Garrett's phone? Is he with you?"

"Well, yes and no… Um, my dad found him being attacked in the park today, he's at our house… Unconscious"

"What! Is he going to be okay? Why didn't you guys take him to the hospital?"

"Um, my parents are good with healing magic, especially my mom. He's going to be fine, but they couldn't fully heal some of the larger cuts on his body, so he will need some time to heal."

"Well I'm glad I called I guess, I got worried when he wasn't here when I got home."

"Why would he be at your house? Wouldn't he be at home with his family?" There was a pause on the other end of the line.

"Of course, he didn't tell you. He doesn't tell anyone" He chuckles for a moment "You know, you're the first friend he's made in a long time besides Jonathan and I, so I guess I kind of figured you knew by now."

"Kyler, what are you talking about?"

"Garrett lives with me and my mom"

"What, why?"

"It's not my place to say, I'm sorry. Thanks for answering his phone, I'll tell my mom that he won't be home. I assume that your parents want to keep an eye on him for now?"

"Yeah, they want to make sure that his wounds don't get infected."

"Okay, thanks Hannah. See you later." He hangs up the line, I put the phone back down on the bedside table. "You're so full of mysteries Garrett" I walk out the door, closing it behind me.

* * *

So what do you guys think? Garrett had some really crappy days as you can tell, and you're getting to see a little more depth on his situation. Sora and Kairi are in the story now, and although they won't be huge characters, they will be here nonetheless. I hope you guys enjoyed the fight in the park, I really enjoy thinking about cool ways to string combat together, although the really exciting fights won't happen for a while. I really hope you guys liked this chapter, and please leave some reviews, I would really appreciate it!


	7. Chapter 7

Well, the last chapter took a year, and this one only took me a few days, so I'd say that's a huge improvement. This chapter we get to see what happened to Garrett's parents, so I'm super excited about that. I have a question that I would like to hear what you guys have to say on, and I'm going to put that in the authors note at the end. Enjoy the chapter!

* * *

 _Hello - Dream_

Hello - Normal POV

"Hello" - Dialogue

* * *

 **WHY DIDN'T YOU LET ME DIE**

 **GARRETT POV**

 _I couldn't wait, I was so excited. My parents and I were on our way to the hospital. A few months ago, my parents told me I was going to be a big brother. Today was the day we were going to find out if I was going to have a baby brother or a baby sister. I asked them all sorts of questions the past few months to make sure I was completely prepared. I promised them that I would be the best big brother ever! Suddenly, disaster struck on the city road ahead of us._

" _Dad!" I screamed as a car ahead of us collided with a semi-truck carrying construction materials. The car got stuck under one of the wheels, and the semi spun out of control. Building materials flew off the semi as it rolled onto its side and collided with multiple cars. Time slowed down for me as everything happened. My parents died instantly along with my unborn sibling when another car collided with ours. I looked straight ahead as rebar flew through the windshield, and stabbed straight through my abdomen, my head collided with the headrest behind me, knocking me unconscious._

"NOOO" I screamed as I shot upright in the unfamiliar bed. I began sobbing as the memory flashed before me again. The white sheets covering me began to stain red as my sudden movement reopened my wounds.

Someone came into the room and rushed over to me. They sat on the bed beside me and gently wrapped their arms around me. I couldn't tell who it was, it was too dark to see, but I tightly wrapped my arms around them, and for the first time since I was adopted, I cried in front of someone. I clutched them tightly as my tears soaked their shoulder.

"Shh, you're okay, it was just a bad dream" I could now tell the voice was feminine, and the girl gently ran her hand through my hair as my shoulders bobbed with my sobs.

"W-Why…" Was all I was able to get out between my tears.

"I don't know why we have bad dreams, it just happens."

"Why didn't you let me die?"

* * *

 **HANNAH POV**

"Why didn't you let me die?"

My body stiffened when his voice came out in a whisper. He wanted to die? I didn't know what was going on, but I knew more about Garrett from those few words than I did from our small conversations over the past month at school. He was broken, there was no other way to put it. He was in so much pain and wanted it to end. I didn't respond at all, instead I just held him. He cried for who knows how long. My parents came in to see what was going on, and they saw me sitting there holding him. I bit my lip as tears streamed down my face as well. I shook my head at them, knowing what they were asking. Garrett was in no way, okay.

Eventually, after I don't know how long, his sobs stopped, and his breathing slowed down. He cried himself to sleep. However, his arms were still tightly wrapped around me. I sighed quietly, there was no way for me to get up. Reluctantly, I laid back onto the bed with his arms around me and eventually fell asleep.

* * *

 **GARRETT POV**

Sunlight shone through the blinds of the window, causing me to stir from my slumber. Slowly, my senses came to me, and I became aware of the faint smell of vanilla along with an unfamiliar warmth curled against me in my arms. My eyes shot open, and I saw a head of messy brown hair. Quickly, I released the person in my grasp and backed away, getting tangled in the bed sheets in the process.

"Shit!" Not realizing I was close to the edge of the bed, I fell backwards, dropping a couple feet onto the floor. I rubbed the back of my head as it hit the floor, and I saw a familiar face looking at me from on top of the bed. Although her hair was messier than normal from just waking up, I recognized her in an instant, and confusion crossed my face, not remembering what happened to me for me to be in these circumstances.

"Garrett, are you okay?" She looked at me, concern crossing her face when she saw the sheets covered in traces of blood from when they reopened the night before.

"Yea I'm…" I wince when I move to stand, and pain shoots through my body from my wounds, keeping me on the floor.

"I'm fine. What am I doing here?"

"You were attacked. My dad found you unconscious in the park… He brought you here."

"O-Okay, I remember getting attacked. Why were you in the bed with me?" A faint blush crossed her cheeks, but it quickly disappeared.

"You don't remember? You woke up screaming in the middle of the night. I came in here to check on you, and you were crying so much. You uh… You held onto me and I couldn't get out."

"Oh…" I stammer awkwardly and try to get up, but the sheets prevent that. Hannah gets off the bed and helps me untangle myself and offers her hand to help me up. I notice the blood staining the sheets, and then see her light-yellow shirt also stained.

"I'm uh… Sorry about your clothes"

"Oh, It's fine, don't worry about it. You should probably lay back down and get some rest."

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea" I climb back into the bed gently and she walks out of the room.

A short while later, a slender woman with red hair walks into the room carrying a tray of food. She gently sets the tray on the bedside table.

"Hello, my name is Kairi, I'm Hannah's mother, she told me you were awake, so I figured I would bring you something to eat. How are you feeling?" I examine her, she's definitely about the same height as Hannah, and she shares most of her features, namely her deep blue eyes and slim nose.

"I'm okay, a little sore. Thank you for the food." I start eating the food slowly, careful not to hurt myself.

"You took quite the beating, Heartless can be relentless."

"Heartless?"

"Yes, the things that attacked you. My husband said that there were a lot of them."

"H-How do you know about-" Kairi quickly silenced me.

"My husband will come talk to you about that later, for now, how about you finish that food and clean up." She motions to my ruined clothes, which I now realized were definitely not mine.

"There are some fresh clothes sitting on the dresser over there, and the restroom is down the hall. Take a right when you leave the room, and it's the second door on the left, I left a fresh towel for you on the counter. After that, I'll come and try to heal you a little more."

"Thank you, Miss Kairi," She smiles lightly at me and stands, leaving the room quietly.

Once I finish the food, I gather the clothes and make my way to the restroom. I remove the bandages and step into the shower. I wash myself, careful not to hurt myself. I reach for the shampoo, washing my hair before using the vanilla scented conditioner. I felt bad about using them, but I knew how oily my gets, so I did it anyway. I get out and dry off before getting dressed and make my way back to the room and lay down in bed.

Miss Kairi walks back into the room a little while later and sets some blue cubes down as she sits beside me.

"I'm uh, going to need you to take your shirt off so I can heal you."

"Heal me how?" I ask nervously.

"With magic of course" She giggles as if it was obvious, but I had never seen anyone use magic, I had heard it was long forgotten, but here she was saying she knew how to use it.

"O-Oh, okay" I nervously peel off my shirt, exposing the cuts and bruises covering my upper body, yet her eyes rest on the large scar on my abdomen.

"What happened here?" She had been curious about it since the day before, but she was too worried about keeping Garrett alive.

"I'd… Rather not talk about it" She silently nodded her head and hovered her hands over my body.

"Curaga" She whispered, and my body covered in a green glow. My wounds stung as they healed a little bit, most of the bruises fading away to green-yellow splotches on my skin. When the glow faded, I felt a little better, although my wounds didn't heal fully. My muscles were sore, and she told me I could put my shirt back on as she began chewing on one of the blue cubes.

"What's that?" I ask curiously.

"It's an ether, it's like a potion, but it's used to restore magical energy" I nod in understanding, still surprised that she knew magic in the first place.

"I thought magic was long forgotten, where did you learn it?"

"A magician that we knew when we were your age taught me the basics, and then my husband taught me more. I'm only really good at healing magic, but I also know a very powerful light magic spell. My husband is much better at offensive magic than I am, I focused more on healing."

"Wow, I'm impressed, I never thought that I would meet anyone that knows magic. Does uh, does Hannah know how to use magic too?" She shook her head at me.

"No, we didn't see any reason to teach her. We only learned how to use it because we needed to."

"What do you mean 'needed to'?"

"Because of the Heartless" I heard a deeper voice say. I looked to see a tall man leaning against the door frame. He had wild spiky brown hair, I guess that's where Hannah gets the brown from. As he walked towards us, he tripped over one of his large feet and Miss Kairi giggled.

"Clumsy as ever, Garrett, this is my husband Sora" He extends his hand to me after he recovers, and I reach out to shake it.

"Well Garrett, it's nice to officially meet you. You gave us quite a scare, those Heartless handed you quite the beating"

"You guys keep saying Heartless, what are they?" I look at him, confusion all over my face.

"The heartless are beings born from the darkness in people's hearts. Kairi, my friends and I had to save the universe from them a long time ago. Do you know why they were attacking you?"

"No, but they started attacking me about a month ago, I had this weird dream, and that's when it all started." Sora and Kairi looked at each other. Sora's face had a sign of suspicion before quickly turning to nervousness.

"This uh… This dream. It wouldn't have happened to be on a giant stained-glass platform would it?" My eyes widen suddenly. How could he know?

"Uh yeah, how did you know that?" Sora grabs a chair at a desk and pulls it over beside the bed. Sitting down, he rubs his face for a moment, thinking about how to talk about the subject. Kairi grabs his hand and holds it gently, giving him a reassuring nod.

"You can use a Keyblade can't you?" The question came from out of nowhere, I was caught off guard. He knew about the Keyblade?

"Uh, yeah. How did you know that?" Kairi is the one who spoke next

"We were Keyblade wielders when we were your age. We had to fight a man named Master Xehanort who was trying to take control of something called Kingdom Hearts." Okay, I was officially lost, what were they talking about? Sora quickly snapped me out of my confusion.

"Garrett, if the Keyblade chose you, that means you have a difficult road ahead of you, you're going to need help. Let me train you, you'll need to know how to fight as well as know how to use magic." I was stunned, I was going to have to fight some mysterious enemies?

"Wait, what? I don't understand any of this." A look of seriousness came upon Sora, whatever was going on, he wasn't messing around.

"I can explain more later when I train you alright?"

"Uh, alright"

"Good, then once you heal up, I'll start teaching you some of the basics." He got up and walked out of the room without saying another word.

"I guess we'll be seeing you around here often" Kairi smiled softly at me.

"I guess so…"

* * *

Alright, so Garrett met Sora and Kairi, and Sora is going to spend some time training him. Like I said, I have a question for you guys. I'm trying to figure out weapons for all the characters. I want to do something new for Jonathan and Kyler. I already know what Kyler is going to use for a weapon, and I'm super excited about that, but I'm still trying to decide on what Jonathan is going to use. So I want to leave that up to you guys. If you have an idea, just leave it in a review, and I'll pick my favorite one. Besides that, please follow and review, I would really appreciate it. That's all for now guys, so I'll see you soon. Mainwolf out.


	8. Chapter 8

Hey everyone, Mainwolf here with chapter 8 of Rise of Darkness. I didn't get any responses about ideas for Jonathan's weapon, so I came up with something I thought would be cool to add to the story, however, it is no longer a new weapon in the series because of Kingdom Hearts 3. Speaking of Kingdom Hearts 3, I finished it a couple weeks ago, and I really enjoyed it. There are definitely flaws, but overall it was a very enjoyable. So back on track, in this chapter, Garrett is reunited with his friends, and they have an important conversation with Sora. We go through a few time skips, and the guys play at the Homecoming pep rally. I do not own any of the songs in this story, and they will be put at the ending authors note if anyone somehow doesn't know the songs. Thanks for reading, and enjoy chapter 8!

Also to the reviewer, H.R.C. Stanley, no, not as in Hannah Montana LOL. But I do appreciate your reviews :)

* * *

"Hello" - Normal dialogue

 _Hello - Singing_

* * *

 **REUNION AND APPLAUSE**

 **GARRETT POV**

I was almost fully healed after nearly a week. Although my body was still very sore, all that was left were light pink scars marking my body. Hannah would be back from school soon, she was probably the only thing keeping me from dying of boredom. She would come hang out with me while I was stuck healing in their guest room. Currently I was sitting there, playing some random games on my phone to pass the time. Finally, Hannah came into the room.

"Hey Garrett, how are you feeling" She walked over, bringing the desk chair with her to sit beside the bed.

"I'm feeling good, just a little sore" I smiled softly at her.

"Good, my parents said that you are healed enough to go back home, so Jonathan and Kyler said that they would come over later to pick you up. They're going to eat dinner with us and then take you home."

"Finally, I can't wait to get out of this bed. Uh, not that I don't like it here, you guys have a wonderful house" I stammer awkwardly, Hannah just giggles.

"It's okay, I know what you mean" I let out a relieved sigh and lay back against the bed. She sits there a moment, contemplating something, before finally speaking again.

"Garrett, do you remember anything from that first night you woke up screaming here?" I look at her confused, wondering why she is asking.

"No, the only thing I know is that you said I was crying against your shoulder" I watched her face as a tear started to stream down her cheek, but she quickly brushed it away.

"You asked me… Why we didn't let you die…" I sighed and looked away from her, ashamed.

"I really said that? I'm sorry, I was just… Sad I guess. That was a hard day for me, it was the anniversary of-" I quickly stopped myself.

* * *

 **HANNAH POV**

"Anniversary of what" Garrett was silent for a while, like he normally was when he didn't want to talk about something. I knew this by now, so I wasn't going to pry anymore. I stood and was about to leave to give him some time alone when he reached and lightly gripped my arm. I turned back to him, seeing tears forming in his eyes, and I sat back down.

"It was the anniversary of when my family died" My breath hitched in my throat when I heard him say that. He was all alone.

"I was on the way to the hospital with my parents, my mom was about four months along with another child, we were going to see if it was a boy or girl. There was a crazy accident, a semi full of construction stuff got hit and spun out of control. A lot of people died that day, I was in critical condition. Even after surgery they weren't sure I was going to make it." He gently gripped the hem of his shirt, raising it slowly, and I saw the gruesome scar on his abdomen.

"A rod of rebar shot through the windshield and stabbed straight through me" I reached out towards the scar, but when I realized what I was doing, I decided to grab his hand instead.

"That's awful, I'm sorry you had to go through that Garrett" He put his shirt back down and let out another sigh.

"Things are hard sometimes. I have nightmares about it a lot, and sometimes I kinda just shut down." I lightly rubbed my thumb along his knuckles before releasing his hand after a few moments, and I rose to walk out of the room.

"Dinner will be here soon, mom decided to order pizza"

* * *

 **JONATHAN POV**

Kyler and I pulled into the driveway in front of Hannah's house, well at least, the address she gave us. But there was no way Hannah's family lived here, this house was pretty big for a family that moved from Destiny islands. It wasn't a mansion, but it was definitely an expensive house, there was no doubting that.

"Do you think she gave us the wrong address? There's no way that they live here" I looked over at Kyler as I said this, he was definitely having his doubts about it as well.

"There's only one way to find out isn't there?" He turned off the car and got out, I reluctantly followed him, and we approached the front door. After we awkwardly looked at each other, neither of us wanted to be the one to ring the doorbell, I reached forward and pressed the button. After a few moments the door opened, and a short pale woman with red hair appeared before us.

"Oh you must be Kyler and Jonathan, Hannah told me that you would be here soon. Please, come in" She stepped to the side in order to let us inside. We walked in to see the nice interior of the house, as well as some still unpacked boxes neatly sitting in a corner in the living room. In the kitchen was a tall man with wild brown hair, that must be Hannah's dad.

"I'm Kairi, and this is my husband Sora" The man had a goofy smile plastered on his face and he approached us, his hand extended.

"It's nice to meet the both of you, go ahead and take a seat, pizza will be here soon."

We sat down, and shortly after, Hannah walked out to join us, eventually followed by Garrett who was walking stiffly.

"Hey bro, you feeling alright?" He smiled at me as he walked over and sat between me and Kyler, wincing as he did.

"Yeah, I'm good, thanks to Sora and Kairi, just sore is all" The doorbell rang again, and Sora got up to get it, grabbing some munny as he left. A moment later he walked back with a couple boxes of pizza and set them down in the center of the table before moving to retrieve some plates for everyone.

"Go ahead and dig in everyone. Would anyone like a drink?" Garrett and I asked for water, and Kyler of course asked for a glass of milk. I chuckled and dug into my piece of pizza.

* * *

 **GARRETT POV**

Everyone was having a good time, Sora and Kairi were very nice to everyone, and we had conversations on lots of things, from music to hobbies. As we were nearing the end of the pizza Sora looked at me with a serious expression.

"Do they know?" I look at him confused before realization dawns on my face as I understand what he's talking about. However, Jonathan and Kyler look at the both of us, not knowing what Sora is talking about.

"They know what I told you originally, which to be honest isn't much" He nods at me before turning to the two of them and his daughter.

"I'm sorry to ruin the happy moment, but there is something serious that I need to talk about" He looks directly at Jonathan and Kyler.

"Garrett wields a mighty weapon called the Keyblade, it's a mighty weapon made to defeat beings that threaten the balance of light and darkness." Hannah gasps and looks at me, surprised to hear this as her father was the Keyblade master that defeated Master Xehanort.

"At the moment, beings born from the darkness in people's hearts called Heartless are coming to eliminate the Keyblade wielder" It was Kyler and Jonathan's turn to look at me now, shocked about this sudden turn in events. Originally the Keyblades were cool, but to hear that I was being targeted was very concerning for them. It was at this time that Sora decided to sap them out of their daze, and what he said next surprised not only them, but myself as well.

"The Heartless don't operate on their own, they have to have someone telling them what to do, which means that someone else is coming after you as well Garrett. Because of this, it's not safe for you to handle this burden alone, which is why you two will be helping him."

"B-But we don't have Keyblades" Kyler was the one to break out of his shock first.

"I know, which is why I am going to give the two of you weapons of your own, as well as teach you how to use magic like I will Garrett, follow me" He stands and walks to a sliding glass door leading out to the backyard. The three of us stand and follow him outside, unsure of what is happening. Once we get outside, Sora turns to Jonathan and Kyler.

"Hold out your hands" The two of them extend their hands, palms facing up, and Sora stretches his arms out towards them. In a flash of light, magic weapons appear in their hands. In Kyler's hands appeared a beautiful bow. It was a deep blue with gold markings etched into it with a comfortable grip wrapped delicately in leather. Alongside the bow was a matching quiver with arrows that appeared to be made out of light.

In Jonathan's hand appeared a sliver trident, the end flaring out in a circle before the tips curve back inwards. The opposite end of the trident had a sharpened spearhead on it.

"The two of you are going to have to practice with these in order to become proficient, so you need to come here with Garrett so I can train all three of you" Jonathan and Kyler looked up from their weapons in shock and awe.

"Why is this all happening?" Jonathan asked nervously as the weapons suddenly disappeared from their hands. Sora shook his head frowning before he responded.

"I'm not sure, I thought we rid the worlds of the Heartless a long time ago. Whatever is happening now, it has to be big, which is why the two of you need to aid Garrett. I wasn't alone on my journey, and Garrett can't overcome this evil by himself either" With that said, we all went back inside the house, and Jonathan, Kyler and I headed towards the front door. Sora and Kairi came up and said their goodbyes to us, Sora shaking each of our hands. I looked at Kairi as I spoke up.

"Thank you for taking care of me" I turned to Sora.

"And thank you for saving my life" He smiled softly and nodded his head at me.

* * *

 **KYLER POV**

We were about to turn to leave when Hannah suddenly wrapped her arms around Garrett in a tight hug. I watched him nervously as his body stiffened from her touch. I was watching, waiting for the shove that was sure to come, Garrett hated being hugged because he didn't want to let anyone close, physically or emotionally. I was surprised that the push never came, and in fact, he slowly wrapped his arms around her. My eyes were wide as saucers and eventually Hannah released him. I was confused to see a tear on her face as she looked up at him.

"I-If you feel like that again, come talk to me, okay" Garrett looked at her and nodded his head slightly, apparently whatever she was talking about, Garrett understood.

"I promise" With that, we turned to leave, closing the door behind us.

* * *

 **GARRETT POV**

"Kyler can I drive?" I looked at him as I approached our car. After assuring him that I felt fine, he tossed me the keys and we all got in the car. I drove us home, parking beside Jonathan's car. Considering how late it was, he was going to stay the night at our place and go to school with us in the morning. When we got home, they guys asked me all sorts of questions that I tried my best to answer. They asked about how to get their weapons to show up, and I explained that I just had to think about my Keyblades, and when they tried, their weapons appeared as well. Eventually, I told them that I was tired, and we all went to sleep. Then next morning, I got up to my alarm, and I got my sore, stiff body into the shower. After I got out, I went downstairs to take some Advil to relieve my sore muscles. We went to school when we were all ready, I drove our car while Kyler decided to ride with Jonathan. Because of this, I decided to blast some music as I drove when one of my favorite songs came on.

"Oh, we should totally play this song at the pep rally next month" I drove to school and parked next to Jonathan and we all walked to our first period together. I talked to them and mentioned the song, they both agreed immediately. The two of them had started to get frustrated because they couldn't decide on a song, and had been wanting my input, thankfully this was a song that each of us enjoyed, and it was an easy decision.

Although school was still boring as always, I was relieved to be back to normal life. The day was filled with teachers asking how I was recovering, apparently Kyler told everyone that I got hit by a car that ran a red light, thankfully the teachers believed him. Most of the students didn't even notice I was missing, that was fine by me though because I didn't bother with any of them. A couple people I talk to in class came and talked to me, but that's about it.

After school, we went and talked to Mr. Rico and told him the song we had decided on. He thought that it was perfect and gave us the go ahead on it. We could come to his classroom after school whenever we needed to work on it. I was getting super excited about it, it was one of my favorite songs to play, and we all wanted to put our own spin on the song.

We went straight back to our place after that and played some video games for a few hours. It was nice that things were finally back to normal. Actually, things were better than normal, this was the first time I felt at ease in a long time.

* * *

 **TIME SKIP – ONE WEEK LATER**

 **GARRETT POV**

We were at Hannah's house practicing with Sora, he had begun to teach us the basics of magic, and so far, I could cast fire, Kyler had learned blizzard, and Jonathan had learned thunder. We would eventually learn all these spells, but right now, he told us to start out with one, and the others would come easier after we had a good grasp on these. Along with this, we all practiced combat with our weapons. Kyler and I had a slight advantage because I often competed in the struggle tournaments, and Kyler was in the archery club. Unfortunately, Jonathan had never used anything like a spear before, so Sora spent most of his time focusing on helping Jonathan grow comfortable with the powerful weapon.

Kyler was becoming pretty consistent with his shots, but his aiming was still a little slow. Sora had given him the challenge of trying to hit the bullseye of the target he had set up fifteen times in one minute. Right now, he was able to hit the bullseye about nine times, but he was definitely getting faster.

I was currently practicing my swings against a practice dummy. My motions were wide and sloppy, causing me to use a lot more energy than I should be for each swing. Sora had me practicing a simple three hit combo, making sure to hit a specific spot on the dummy with each swing. My motions were definitely becoming smoother, but I was still having trouble hitting the precise spots every time.

Jonathan however, was sparring with Sora in order to get used to using his unfamiliar weapon, as well as giving Sora a chance to find out where his form and technique could be improved. Jonathan was using a lot of thrusts, but Sora was trying to get him to use some swipes and kicks in order to mix things up, along with reminding him that the opposite end of his trident has a spearhead on it, so he can attack behind him, and spins would be dangerous as well. If Jonathan could get used to his weapon, he would be a versatile force to be reckoned with.

* * *

 **TIME SKIP – TWO WEEKS LATER**

 **GARRETT POV**

We were exhausted. Jonathan, Kyler and I spent a lot of time training with Sora, and we were becoming accustomed to our weapons as well as getting a better grasp on the spell we had each learned. The days that we didn't go train, we spent staying after school to practice our song for the pep rally.

The pep rally is tomorrow, so we are making sure that all of our things are ready. Jonathan was tuning his electric guitar and making sure his amp and pedals were all packed and ready to go. Kyler was tuning his bass as well as preparing his amp and pedals. I'm loading my things into the car currently, cables, mic stands, and all the mics that we are going to be using. The school doesn't have very good mics for instruments, so I'm going to use my personal ones that I bought a while ago. Once I got the trunk of the car loaded, I closed it and went back inside to hang out with Kyler a little before going to bed.

The next morning, we went through our usual routine before heading to school. Today, our classes were shorter than usual in order to have time for the pep rally at the end of the day. The energy at school today was electrifying as everyone was excited for the homecoming game tonight, and homecoming was tomorrow. The three of us were starting to get a little nervous as this was a big moment for us, this was our first time getting to play in front of real people instead of just playing in the garage, and they wanted us to kick off the pep rally.

The principal allowed the three of us to skip our last three classes after lunch in order to go and set up our gear. Mr. Rico had already brought the drum set from his classroom down into the auditorium, and I was setting it up and tuning all the drums to how I liked them to go. Once all of us had our things in place, we mic'd up all the amps and the drum set as well as putting Jonathan's mic stand in the front center of the stage. When we were ready, we got a couple run throughs of our song, and when we were ready, we just waited backstage until it was time to start. When everyone started to file into the auditorium, we all started getting nervous, especially Jonathan.

"Oh my gosh, what if I mess up the words, it's going to be so embarrassing!" Jonathan was sweating nervously as he paced. He' normally the more confident out of him and Kyler, and here he was, freaking out. I'm nervous as well, but it's not as bad because I have played this song tons of times, so I'm not too worried about messing up.

"Dude, you're going to do great, they obviously think we're good if they asked us to do this" I try and comfort him, but we're out of time.

"Alright guys, you're up, just go out there and start playing, you're going to do great." Mr. Rico says as he approaches us. We all take a slow, deep breath before going onto the dark stage, the students in the auditorium not able to see us yet. Our first time in front of people, and it's the entire school… All five thousand students packed into the auditorium.

I got set at the drums, and Jonathan and Kyler grabbed their guitars. The hum of the crowd was electrifying, and as soon as Jonathan started strumming his guitar, a sole light faded up on him, the crowd went silent. Once he played the intro, another light came up on Kyler and I, lighting the two of us up as Kyler and I started playing with him and Jonathan began to sing softly.

 _Hey_ _  
_ _Don't write yourself off yet_ _  
_ _It's only in your head you feel left out or looked down on_ _  
_ _Just try your best_ _  
_ _Try everything you can_ _  
_ _And don't you worry what they tell themselves when you're away_

As the chorus came, we built the song, and as Jonathan sang again, the rest of the lights came on, lighting up the stage.

 _It just takes some time_ _  
_ _Little girl, you're in the middle of the ride_ _  
_ _Everything, everything will be just fine_ _  
_ _Everything, everything will be all right_

The sang came back down now as the next verse started, and some of the students started leaving their seats and coming down to the area in front of the stage.

 _Hey_ _  
_ _You know they're all the same_ _  
_ _You know you're doing better on your own so don't buy in_ _  
_ _Live right now_ _  
_ _Just be yourself_ _  
_ _It doesn't matter if that's good enough for someone else_

 _It just takes some time  
Little girl, you're in the middle of the ride  
Everything, everything will be just fine  
Everything, everything will be all right_

 _It just takes some time  
Little girl, you're in the middle of the ride  
Everything, everything will be just fine  
Everything, everything will be all right_

After the second chorus came the musical interlude, by this point, the floor was packed and almost everyone was singing along to the song.

 _Hey_ _  
_ _Don't write yourself off yet_ _  
_ _It's only in your head you feel left out or looked down on_ _  
_ _Just do your best_ _  
_ _Do everything you can_ _  
_ _Don't you worry what their bitter hearts are going to say_

Instead of going into the final chorus like normal, Jonathan and Kyler stopped playing their instruments, opting for a drum breakdown, and I played my beat on my toms, kick and snare. Jonathan clapped to the beat, having everyone join him as he sang.

 _It just takes some time_ _  
_ _Little girl, you're in the middle of the ride_ _  
_ _Everything, everything will be just fine_ _  
_ _Everything, everything will be all right_

I played a big, driving fill as Jonathan and Kyler came back in for a big ending.

 _It just takes some time_ _  
_ _Little girl, you're in the middle of the ride_ _  
_ _Everything, everything will be just fine_ _  
_ _Everything, everything will be all right_

The crowd roared as the song ended, and once the applause started to die down, Mr. Rico walked onto stage with a handheld microphone in his hand.

"Twilight Town High, wasn't that incredible?" The students roared again as he turned to smile at us.

"What do you guys think? You got one more in you?" Kyler and I nervously looked at one another. We knew a lot of songs, but we hadn't practiced any others that much in the past month. Jonathan however had an idea apparently.

"I think we can do one more" He turned and smiled at the two of us as Mr. Rico walked off the stage. Whatever song he had in mind, it must be one that we all knew well, otherwise he would have turned down the suggestion.

"Alright everyone, clap with me" He started clapping the tempo to whatever song he was thinking. I hope he knew what he was doing.

 _This is the story of a girl_ _  
_ _Who cried a river and drowned the whole world_ _  
_ _And while she looked so sad in photographs_ _  
_ _I absolutely love her, when she smiles_

As soon as he started singing, Kyler and I smiled immediately, this was definitely a song we knew well. Once Jonathan finished the opening, we all started playing, the crowd roaring again as we played the popular song.

 _How many days in the year  
She woke up with hope, but she only found tears  
And I can be so insincere  
Making the promises never for real  
As long as she stands there waiting  
Wearing the holes in the soles of her shoes  
How many days disappear  
You look in the mirror so how do you choose_

 _Your clothes never wear as well the next day  
And your hair never falls in quite the same way  
You never seem to run out of things to say_

 _This is the story of a girl  
Who cried a river and drowned the whole world  
And while she looked so sad in photographs  
I absolutely love her, when she smiles_

 _How many lovers would stay  
Just to put up with this shit day after day  
How do we wind up this way  
Watchin' the mouths for the words I would say  
As long as we stand here waiting  
Wearing the clothes of the soles I would choose  
How do we get there today  
If we're walkin' to far from the price of the shoes_

 _Your clothes never wear as well the next day  
And your hair never falls in quite the same way  
You never seem to run out of things to say_

 _This is the story of a girl  
Who cried a river and drowned the whole world  
And while she looked so sad and lonely there  
I absolutely love her, when she smiles_

Jonathan started playing the guitar solo as he turned and smiled at the two of us, None of us expected everyone to react like this as we played.

 _Your clothes never wear as well the next day  
And your hair never falls in quite the same way  
You never seem to run out of things to say_

Jonathan and Kyler stopped playing again as I kept time, playing a small beat on just the high hat.

 _This is the story of a girl  
Who cried a river and drowned the whole world  
And while she looks so sad in photographs  
I absolutely love her_

We all came back in again, playing our hearts out as the crowd sang with us.

 _This is the story of a girl  
Who's pretty face she hid from the world  
And while she looked so sad and lonely there  
I absolutely love her_

 _This is the story of a girl  
Who cried a river and drowned the whole world  
And while she looked so sad in photographs  
I absolutely love her, when she smiles, when she smiles_

The crowd went crazy as we ended the second song, and this time, the principal came out to move on with the pep rally after shaking all of our hands. Jonathan and Kyler set their instruments on their stands as we walked off the stage. What a way to start a pep rally.

Everyone made their way to their seats as the pep rally continued. At the end of the day, everyone was super excited for the big game tonight. The football team went on to win their third homecoming game in a row. Everything seemed to be going great, but fate always has different plans.

* * *

Alright everyone, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I know I definitely struggled in describing how Jonathan's trident looks, so if you want a better understanding, it looks like Finnick Odair's trident from the Hunger Games. Along with that, the songs used in this chapter were "The Middle" by Jimmy Eat World, and "Absolutely (Story of a Girl)" by Nine Days. I really hope you all are enjoying the story so far, and if so, please drop a review and let me know how you like about it, I would greatly appreciate it. Also, since I mentioned how I finished Kingdom Hearts 3, and I'm sure a lot of you have as well, how about you guys tell me what your favorite boss from the game was. Mine was definitely the Anti-Aqua fight, but the Vanitas fight is a close second. Again, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and I'll see you next time, peace!


	9. Chapter 9

_Hey everybody, Mainwolf here. I'm sorry this chapter took a while to get up, but I went out of town to visit some friends, and when I got back I had some difficulty writing the chapter. I finally got something that I'm relatively happy with, so I hope you all enjoy it._

* * *

 **A NIGHT INTERRUPTED, A NIGHT RUINED**

 **GARRETT POV**

It was the day of the Homecoming dance, and Jonathan, Kyler and I were all hanging out. We were going to spend the day relaxing; we've definitely earned it. We had been training with Sora practically every day. And the days we weren't, we practiced for the pep rally that was yesterday, which we totally killed it. The principal even asked us to play at the one to kick off the new year when we get back from Christmas break, which is coming up in about a month and a half. We had a special surprise that we were hoping we could pull off, but it was going to take some extra work. We wanted to write our own song for this one, but we didn't know what to do it on yet. However, we would cross that bridge when we got to it. Right now, we were playing the new smash bros game that came out a bit ago. Jonathan brought over his Nintendo Switch, and he was currently playing against Kyler, and it was super close. Kyler was playing his classic Sheik, and Jonathan was currently playing Roy. We were rotating in and out, the loser had to pass the controller. I don't plan on giving it up once the loser hands it to me.

As it got closer to the dance, we started getting ready. I wore a nice pair of dark khaki pants, and a deep blue button-down shirt. Kyler wore a black pair of pants, a black button-down shirt, and a white bowtie. Jonathan was wearing black pants, a dark red button-down shirt and a black tie to match his girlfriend's red and black dress. The three of us decided to go eat before we went to the school, so we headed to a relatively nice restaurant to grab some food. It wasn't that far, so we decided we would walk, it was a cool October night after all. After we ate, we headed towards the school. We had a little bit of time to kill, it was only 5:15 and the dance didn't start till 6, so we took our time walking. We were walking through the Sandlot, which was empty because there weren't any struggle competitions going on, when the course of our night changed. Heartless spawned all around us, roughly thirty of them altogether. Some Large Bodies, a few Soldiers, and some Shadows. The exact same ones that nearly killed me almost a month ago, but this time, I had help. This was Jonathan and Kyler's first encounter with the Heartless, I hope they're ready.

"Seriously? They chose now of all times to attack us?" I chuckled as I heard Jonathan exclaim this, the Heartless were no respecters of people. We all swiftly materialized our weapons as the Heartless closed in on us. Kyler stepped back behind Jonathan and I, creating some distance so he had a little more time to aim and fire his arrows. Jonathan, still growing accustomed to his weapon, and being in his first hostile encounter, took a more defensive stance as we prepared to fight.

As ready as we would ever be, we engaged the enemy. I was attacking with swift, precise strikes, quickly eliminating some of the shadows. Jonathan was attacked by some of the Soldiers, and he was keeping his distance from them, attacking with thrusts, and kicking them away when they drew too close for his liking. Kyler was firing arrows at a moderate pace, trying to shoot quickly, but making sure that he wasn't missing because he was trying to aim too quickly. He missed a couple times, and nearly hit me in the side once. That's when he switched his attention to the Large Bodies, they were much harder to miss, although they were more resilient than the other Heartless. He fired a blizzard at the Heartless, freezing some of them and giving Jonathan and I an opening to quickly eliminate a few of them. We were doing fairly well, receiving only a few bruises, and eventually all that was left were the Large Bodies. Surprisingly we hadn't eliminated any of them yet.

Jonathan turned his attention to them and delivered a powerful stab to the chest of one of them, only to recoil violently off of it, losing his balance in the process. The Large Body quickly seized his opportunity and clasped his hands together before jumping into the air and slamming them down on Jonathan. I shot a fire at the Heartless to get its attention, and Kyler ran to help Jonathan stagger to his feet. Jonathan was coughing as he fought to regain his breath, his clothes now ruined. There were three Large Bodies surrounding me, staring me down and effectively cutting me off from my friends.

The Large Body that struck Jonathan repeated his motions and jumped at me, and I instinctively slid underneath it, and turned as I sprung to my feet, slashing it in the back with my Keyblades. Jonathan quickly reacted and aimed his trident at the enemy, firing a thunder at its back. The Heartless was surrounded in a cloud of smoke at the collision, and when it dissipated, we could see the black smoke and the rising heart of the now defeated enemy. That left us to combat the two remaining Large Bodies, and we now knew how to beat them.

"The back is the weak point!" I exclaimed this loudly while watching closely, apprehensive as we stared down the two remaining Heartless.

We resumed combat again, I was acting as the main adversary for the Heartless as Kyler tried to position himself to get shots on their backsides, and Jonathan looked for openings to use magic as he tried to stay out of the way. If he took another hit like that, he would be in serious trouble. We soon eliminated a second Large Body, leaving only one remaining.

The Large Body suddenly attacked in a manner we hadn't seen so far. It leaned forward onto its large stomach and kicked off with its feet, a blue glow began to emanate from the Heartless as it slid on its stomach, straight towards Jonathan. He was too injured and couldn't escape from the fast approaching enemy. I took off in a dead sprint, but I wouldn't get there in time either, just before the Large Body collided with him, Jonathan was shoved out of the way by Kyler, who ended up taking the blow for him. When the Heartless collided with him, Kyler was launched through the air, and his body slammed against the wall, immediately knocking him unconscious.

I roared in anger as I ran at the enemy. I launched a powerful Fire at it, unknowingly, I actually launched a Fira, in the smoke from the blast, I slashed at the back of the Large body. Anger fueled my assault, and with a powerful upward swing, I knocked the Heartless off the ground. Before it had the chance to land, I reared back my Keyblades and swung at it, the Heartless turning to dust as I eliminated it.

I ran over to Kyler's unconscious form, and kneeled down, elevating his upper body as I tried to coax his body awake.

"Come on Kyler, you have to wake up" I shook him gently, and his eyes weakly opened. I sighed in relief, and I lifted him in my arms.

"We have to get to Sora; he can heal you two. Kyler's mom would have a fit if she found out what happened" I slowly walked in the direction of Hannah's house, Jonathan limping slightly as he followed me. Looks like we wouldn't be going to the Homecoming dance tonight. I clutched Kyler's weak body to me as I thought to myself. This happened to them because I wasn't good enough, I was weak and worthless. I would get stronger… I had to.

We got to Sora's house, and Jonathan weakly knocked on the door. Kairi opened the door, and gasped quietly as she saw the state that we were in. Quickly, she ushered us inside and took us to the living room. I laid Kyler on the couch before sitting in a chair, Jonathan doing the same. Kairi handed the two of us some medicine. I got a potion, while Jonathan received an elixir due to his more serious injuries.

She then turned her attention to Kyler, his eyes weakly looking up at her. Kairi hovered her hands over his body and cast Curaga. Kyler winced as his body stung slightly. His wounds slowly disappearing, and the bones that had been dislocated popped back into place. Kairi let out a breath as she finished healing him.

"You're going to be fine, just sore for the next few days" I sighed in relief as she said that and leaned back in the chair.

"Where's Sora?" I look over at Kairi as I inquire.

"He went to grab a few things from the store, he should be back soon" I nodded silently, and my eyes started to lull closed, and Kairi smiled softly at the three of us.

"You guys get some rest, you sure earned it" She walked out of the room, Sora eventually came home and saw the three of us. He frowned as he realized our plans had been interrupted, the Heartless always attacked at the worst of times.

* * *

 **HANNAH POV**

I was having a pretty good time at the Homecoming dance. I went with a group of friends, and we were all just hanging out, dancing together. Eventually, the DJ put on a slow song, and most of my friends, including myself, left the dance floor. I was currently sitting at a table, drinking a glass of punch. A frown crossed my face as I watched Logan approach me, a smirk plastered on his face.

"Hey there cutie, care to dance with me?" I scoffed at his as he arrogantly held out his hand to me.

"How about no, now if you would kindly leave me alone, that would be wonderful" He glared at my response and sat down in the chair across from me.

"What, are you waiting for that loser Garrett? News flash, he won't be here, he doesn't like people or dances. Now how about you come dance with me, and I'll make sure you have an enjoyable night" I had enough, and I stood up before splashing my punch on him, staining his clothes in the red liquid before storming out of the gymnasium. On my way out, one of my friends asked what was wrong, and I told her briefly before going out and getting in my car.

I started my car and started to head home, tears threatening to run down my face. Truthfully, I had kind of been hoping that Garrett would be there. He said that he decided to join Jonathan and Kyler at the dance this year, and I was hoping to get a dance with him. Ever since he was at our house recovering, I had found myself slowly enjoying his company more and more. We had even started having real conversations once he told me about what happened to his parents. Once he talked to me about that, I was able to understand him much more. There was still a decent amount that I didn't actually know about him, there was still an event that he didn't want to talk about, but he told me that it's the reason he's scared to let people too close to him.

Beyond that, his drive to train and get better inspired me. I would watch the three of them train occasionally, and Garrett worked tirelessly to improve. He ran the drills that my father gave him relentlessly until they were perfect. He even began adding his own flare to his combat, adding a few more hits before performing the finishing swing my father had taught him, and even trying to weave his fire magic into these combos. Dad said that he had been improving at an incredible rate, being able to move beyond launching a standard fireball, and instead, cast multiple of them, and spin them around himself as he often would when he was surrounded by enemies.

And now that she thought about it, Garrett was definitely losing weight. When she first met him, he was definitely on the bigger side, just a little overweight. But now, as he would workout, she noticed that he was starting to slim down. She found herself wondering how he would look as he continued to train and fight against the heartless, but she quickly shook her head to clear her thoughts. Garrett didn't have feelings for her, and she shouldn't be thinking like this.

I got home and headed inside, my father was in the kitchen eating an apple, and he was surprised to see me home so early, it was barely past nine o'clock.

"You're home early Hannah, were you not having fun?" I watched as he hopped up to sit on the counter, he was lucky that mom wasn't in here, she always gets upset when dad sits on the counter. I swear, he's nearing fifty, and still acts like a kid sometimes.

"You could say that, some guy was being a jerk and I got upset at him, so I left" My dad frowned before hopping off the counter and wrapping me in his arms.

"I'm sorry to hear that princess" I hugged him back briefly before he let me go. I walked out of the kitchen to head upstairs and change out of my dress. As I passed by the living room to head upstairs, I stopped and saw the boys asleep. I looked on in confusion before approaching slowly, they looked beat up. Jonathan and Kyler's clothes were ruined, and Garrett's looked only a little better. They must have got attacked on their way to Homecoming. My heart sank a little, they were being forced to carry this burden, and no part of their life was safe. I quietly left the living room to go upstairs and change before going to sleep.

* * *

 **THE NEXT MORNING**

 **JONATHAN POV**

I awoke in the morning, slightly confused as to why I was asleep in a chair, then I remembered what happened the day before. I slowly got up, my body stiff from how I slept, and feeling sore from the fight the day before. I went to the bathroom before coming back. Garrett and Kyler were still asleep, so I decided to check my phone. Fear ran through me as I checked it. Six missed calls and nearly twenty texts from Sabrina. Boy did I have some apologizing to do. I quickly read through the texts. We had agreed to meet at the school, and I basically stood her up, at least in her eyes. I decided to step out back and call her, hoping she would pick up. After several rings, I was nervous that she wouldn't answer, but she did.

"What is it" She was definitely mad at me

"Sabrina, I really want to apologize for last night. An emergency came up, and I'm-"

"An emergency? You really expect me to believe that an emergency came up on Homecoming night, and you weren't able to tell me this last night?"

"Well no, but listen-"

"No, you listen! We have been dating for three years, and when we finally choose to go to Homecoming, you bail on me? Jonathan, you ruined my night!"

"No, Sabrina, I promise-"

"Jonathan, we're done, over, finished" my heart shattered.

"Come on Sabrina, you don't mean that"

"Yes, I do. I'm breaking up with you." The line went dead. She hung up on me. And there was nothing I could do. I couldn't tell her anything about the Heartless, not that she would believe me anyway…

* * *

 _So the guys got in their first real fight as a team, and it was a little rough. They got through it, but definitely not unscathed. And to make it worse, Jonathan's girlfriend broke up with him. Things are clearly going to be more difficult than everyone first thought. Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Please leave a review to tell me if you enjoyed, or if you have any suggestions, and be sure to follow the story as well. See you all next time, Mainwolf out._


End file.
